Metabolism of hydroxy fatty acids in dogs with steatorrhea secondary to experimentally produced intestinal blind loops.

Several aspects of the metabolism of hydroxy fatty acids were studied in dogs with steatorrhea resulting from an experimentally produced jejunal blind loop. In these animals hydroxy acids were present in the stool in amounts far above normal. These acids disappeared from the feces during tetracycline administration and after exclusion of the blind loop-both procedures that corrected the steatorrhea apparently by reducing bacterial overgrowth. Hydroxy acids persisted in higher than normal amounts, however, after administration of taurocholic acid, which also corrected the steatorrhea, but by a different mechanism. Both in normal dogs and in those with blind loops, hydroxy acid constituted a higher percentage of total fatty acids in the jejunum. A possible conclusion is that hydroxy fatty acids have an enterohepatic circulation via the portal system. When hydroxy acids were fed to normal dogs, steatorrhea was not produced and absorption in amounts similar to that of unsubstituted stearic acid was observed. Isotopic oleic and linoleic acids were converted to hydroxy acids both in vivo and during in vitro incubation with feces; stearic acid was not. These findings support the idea that hydroxy acids arise by the addition of water across double bonds, this addition being catalyzed by enzymes of intestinal bacteria.